Tyisha L. Jones

Tyisha Jones, a proud native Washingtonian, has roots in D.C. going back at least four generations. She nurtured her advocacy skills and grew in her love for culture and community organizing at the Cesar Chavez Public School for Public Policy Public Charter School. 

As she traveled throughout her hometown, Tyisha also discovered the Marion Barry Summer Youth Employment program, through which she became interested in psychology, mental health and wellness. At Walter Reed Medical Facility, then on Georgia Avenue, Tyisha served as a case and care management in the Wounded Warriors Clinic under the guidance of a nurse practitioner, psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor and other wellness specialists.   

That experience inspired Tyisha’s decision to major in psychology when she entered the Pennsylvania State University in 2008. At Penn State, Tyisha also discovered yoga. After graduating from Penn State, Tyisha returned to her hometown, where delved even more deeply into her love for culture, youth, community and wellness with stints at DC Scholars, KIPP DC College Prep, Mary’s Center, Covenant House Washington, DC Rape Crisis Center, and other organizations. 

As an education mentor, case manager, wellness advocate, and community and direct service team member, Tyisha witnessed firsthand the gaps within the education, health and wellness, and direct service realms. In 2016, that led her to cultivate BlackGirlCentered, a program with a curriculum that embraced an African-centered and expressive arts perspective to develop and connect with young Black girls. A year prior, she continued her Sankofa journey with a trip to Ethiopia with scholars, such as Dr. Charles Finch and Kamau Grimes.

Upon realizing BlackGirlCentered’s impact on Black girls and women, Tyisha pursued her Masters of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Trinity Washington University, which she obtained in May 2021. She also began to grow a love for teaching yoga to youth in schools and organizations. During graduate school, Tyisha studied counseling, wellness, and health from an African-centered perspective, embracing the ideologies from Black Child Developmental models and theorists. She also navigated her own Rites of Passage journey led by Akan priestesses who taught her the importance of embodying her heritage and African spirituality as a psycho-social-spiritual model of development and birthright. 

Currently, Tyisha is in pursuit of her license in Professional Counseling while continuing her clinical training at Resilient Child Therapy Institute under Kristian Owens. She has grown fond of studying child development theories and modalities as a way to assist and advocate for the diverse experiences of growing children. 

Tyisha is a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher with continued education credits in the Trauma Conscious Yoga Method and Kemetic Yoga for Black Child and Youth Development models. She has also acquired her Death Doula credentials from Old School Bruja’s Diaspora Death Doula training and studied level-one sound healing and herbalism. In her self-care time, she enjoys teaching and doing yoga and art while spending time with her family including her significant other and dog.